You are a busy healthcare professional. Do you have a personal succession planning strategy?

You manage employees, oversee infrastructure, QC completed work orders and PMs, ensure that Life Safety remains a priority. Running from problem to problem, you often cancel meetings and disregard your daily to-do’s to solve the problems of the day.   

Amidst the chaos, ask yourself a simple question: Do you take time to optimize your career? Do you have a succession planning strategy?

Consider a boiler, that familiar piece of equipment that is the lifeblood of the hospital. You likely focus on optimizing its performance, implementing techniques to extend its life and increase its efficiency. 

Part of the reason you do this is your sense of mission: The boiler protects the patient, it can’t fail. 

Do you do the same for your career? Your career is your internal boiler, your mission: If you don’t optimize it, it will fail you. It won’t get you or your career where you would like it to go.  

Follow your strategy

In his 1965 article “What is Leadership,” written for Reader’s Digest, Dwight Eisenhower wrote:  

“One day during my White House years, I called in an assistant – a highly competent man of fine personality – and asked him if he would like to have a more responsible and remunerative job which was then open. I explained that he would be operating rather independently, largely responsible for his own decisions. He thought for a moment and then said, “No, I’d be no good at it. I am a No. 2 man – and I think a good one – but I am not a No. 1 man. I am not fitted for such a job, and I don’t want it.” 

“Although his answer startled me, I respected his honesty. Moreover, this world always needs competent No. 2 men, and each, on his own level, can be a good performer.” https://www.dwightdeisenhower.com/DocumentCenter/View/114/What-is-Leadership?bidId=

Ike’s number 2 knew where he wanted his career to go, and he was already there. Being number 2 was ok. Career optimization, a succession planning strategy, is for all of us, whether you want to be a number 1, number 2, number 3, or number 4. 

If you would like to talk further to develop a succession planning strategy, or learn more about Gosselin/Martin Associates succession planning services, please see https://gosselin-associates.com/category/succession-planning/

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